OECD Insights

Fisheries - Pirate Fishing

Fishing is big business and profits can be huge, so competition for access to stocks is fierce. Pirate fishers ignore the rules designed to protect resources and ensure equitable shares. They destroy the livelihood of other fishers and threaten the existence of fish species. Combating pirate fishing is hard because the penalties for those caught are low compared with potential gains, and even catching them is difficult given the vast areas of ocean to be covered, the limited means of anti-piracy authorities, and the complicity of some states and customers.

Chapter 5 looks at the economic reasons why pirate fishing continues and the institutional factors that allow it to flourish, such as flags of convenience. We’ll also discuss attempts to combat IUU fishing, and describe the unglamorous life of the modern pirate.

Quiz

- What does ghost fishing catch?
Nets lost or dumped at sea can snag on rocks or the sea bed and continue to fish until they are destroyed.

- How much is a trawlerful of fish worth?
Some catches can be worth millions of dollars. Whose contract says they can’t keep their appendix? Chinese fishers from Yongchuan County in Sichuan province had to agree to have their appendix removed before going to sea and to pay $47 for the operation themselves.

- Whose contract says they can’t keep their appendix?
Chinese fishers from Yongchuan County in Sichuan province had to agree to have their appendix removed before going to sea and to pay $47 for the operation themselves.
See chapter 5 for more information